Blood Angels Legion Terminator Praetor - Part III

 

Back to base-ics again.

With some brief moments between busy stretches, I finally painted up the base for the Praetor. The lighting is pretty bad on the photo, but it's the impression it gives that counts rather than perfect colour balance.

I originally had the idea of painting up another marble base, similar to the steps on which Horus stands, but replicating that needs a lore more attention, time, and most likely the airbrush to get the same colours. Instead I simply played fast and loose and then ended up liking the stone appearance so much that I skipped on the marble effect altogether. There's enough detail on the base that trying to add marbling could easily ruin the look, and besides which most of it will be hidden by the model on top anyway.

The first layer (or four) was Zandri Dust. My pot of that paint is less than stellar and I'll likely need to replace it soon (along with many of the other colours used here), but it's just workable enough that I can thin it with water and apply several coats to give proper coverage.

Next paint was actually Rakarth Flesh. It's almost useless, but a bit of stirring and I managed to get enough for a thin layer or two. Predictably this tinted everything towards a very unusual flesh tone, and so I mixed in Karak Stone (with a subtle amount of white from palette) to again build up a kind of sandstone colour. It's the mixing of these colours, along with random impurities from the palette, that give depth and subtle variation to the final result: don't try to be too perfect or it looks flat, dull, and uninteresting.

Agrax Earthshade around deeper recessed areas and across rubble, then Seraphim Sepia to bring some random colour onto the stone areas, and it's actually at that point when I decided completely to skip any sort of marbling. I pondered whether I should fill in the tile designs with something else, but the return on investment there just wasn't going to make it worthwhile. A final edge highlight and "dusting" with Ushabti Bone and the base is just about done. I still need to paint the rim, which I'm thinking to make a dark brown or ochre. Black just seems too stark of a contrast.

The base itself was made from green-stuff and a texture roller, with texture paint to fill in a few places that didn't turn out properly and give it a damaged look. The cracks in the stone are simple carving into the green-stuff for fun - although next time I should do that before the green-stuff has fully cured.

And there we have it, a simple but effective base with character and very little effort required to paint. It still needs magnetising before I glue the Praetor on top; I'm still deciding whether I should just glue the feet down, or pin the model in place. Pinning would certainly give more solid contact, but could interfere with the magnets.

-- silly painter.

Captain Karlaen Kitbash - Part III

 

Hope the bionics don't weigh that much.

Before anything else, the picture above is not correctly colour balanced. The real skin tones aren't quite so unhealthy looking.

With that out of the way, painting has been abysmally slow of late. There's virtually no time throughout each day for anything. I'm going to try and counter this by painting small details on random models - anything that only needs three or four paints that I can put onto the palette and get done in 15 minutes. This idea was tested recently by painting Karlaen's head, which was taken from the Blood Angels upgrade sprue. I didn't want a shouting expression and needed the bionic eye to be on the right, and this particular head seemed to fit perfectly.

I used the Zorn Palette again here, or close enough to it. Bestigor Flesh, Incubi Darkness, Mephiston Red / Rhinox Hide mix, and Ulthuan Grey for the eye. There was blue on the palette that I used to dot in the iris as well. This particular time around it didn't turn out quite as well as I was hoping, but I still think the general idea is worth continuing to experiment with.

The NMM on the bionics was just some playing around that turned out a lot better than I was expecting. It's simply Incubi Darkness and Ulthuan Grey in varying mixes and glazes. I think a small amount of black might help to punch the contrast even more, but even so I quite like the result. I have no intention to use metallics there: the contrast of metallics elsewhere and NMM on the face will help keep the face as a focal point.

The hair I followed from a Warhammer youtube video:

• Zandri Dust.
• Ushabti Bone highlight, mixed lightly with Zandri Dust.
• Seraphim Sepia wash.
• Pallid Wych Flesh final highlight, although this was mixed with prior colours to keep it from being too overpowering.

And that's really it, the head is done and glued into place. The model is obviously far from being done, but it's actually fully assembled now. There are a plethora of details left to go and I'm not entirely sure how I'll get to all the cape's surfaces, or even what colours to use for it, but now the fun part starts as I get to see every brush stroke contribute to the final piece. Even as it stands I think I've managed to portray Karlaen well with this kitbash and it's definitely been worth the effort.

-- silly painter.

Devastator Squad - Part III

 

I'm blue da ba dee

Not having had much time recently for a multitude of reasons, I've not managed to get a whole lot of painting done. I'm hoping that spell is over for now and am trying to do just a little each day again - and in this case it was the helmets for the devastator squad. Being Blood Angels, famous for their red armour, the helmets are are naturally blue.

The first comment to make here is that I spend so much time with red that I can forget how nice other colours can be to work with. It must be something with the pigments, but blue seems to blend and glaze much more easily than red. The photo doesn't show the brightness variation very well, but also it's not my most perfectionist work ever: I was trying for good enough rather than ultra smooth transitions in some kind of attempt to progress these models. I was also finding the flow improver and a good brush combined making short work of it all.

These helmets are not varnished yet. The recess shading was never going to be overly complicated so I didn't feel the need. They'll get a coat later on when the models are fully assembled. This also means that when I looked at the post-airbrushed helmets and decided they were too dark, it was far easier to highlight. Traditionally I would use Kantor Blue followed by Macragge Blue, with Drakenhof Nighshade in the recesses and a final highlight with Caledor Sky. After the first two steps though, it was far too dark - the highlight was too subtle. This is likely because I'm improving in some aspects with an airbrush and thinning the paints properly: the airbrushed coats were far more translucent than before and it impacts the value jump of the highlight. I suspect I'm encountering this with the reds as well. The solution here was to simply add more volume highlights with glazes of Caledor Sky before finishing with Teclis Blue for edge highlights. I may increase the brightness of each when I assemble the models fully, but equally I might just forget by then too.

That's really all for this post. Time to get the next paint out and progress that little bit on whatever takes my fancy.

-- silly painter

Devastator Squad - Part II

 

Sergeant Shiny Pants

Slow painting progress again from a complete lack of spare time, so there's little to show for this week. I did manage to block in the base colour (literally, the colour on the base) and recess shade the whole squad. This of course is always done after a coat of gloss varnish, so the model will look very different until the later matt varnish stage.

Comparing the model currently against the prior photo, it occurred to me that the varnishing itself may end up being one of the sources of my problems. Layers of varnish will almost certainly dull the final colours and mute the highlights, which will necessarily mean that if I want to bring them back to full then I'll need to glaze the highlights back again later. That kind of control I really only have with a brush, so I'm once again wondering if I should just switch up the armour approach again.

The gloss varnish has two purposes: to help when recess shading (and it really does help that a lot!) but also to seal the airbrushed paint and stop it wearing off so easily. I can't really glaze over the gloss varnish too easily, but maybe I could after the matt varnish stage - in which case it's not worth putting so much effort into the initial highlights as they'll just be corrected later anyway. Maybe that's the answer: simpler airbrushing, glazes later to push the vibrancy and contrast a little. That could end up making the gloss varnish step also of reduced value: mistakes on the recessed shading can be fixed easily later. All worth thinking about after this squad is finished, and it's probably worth looking at simpler test models later just to explore the different approaches.

For when a backpack needs more height.

The other members of the squad I tried to go up to Typhon Ash in full highlight, after which I airbrushed Blood Angels Red as usual. The increase in brightness is rather noticeable and will help show through later - but it also shows that particular "noise" common with airbrush spray. Multiple thin passes undoes too much of the previous work to the point where I might as well go back to non-Contrast paints if I'll keep doing that. This might not be such a bad idea now that I'm far more familiar with how to proper thin airbrush paints. In either case, the smaller models will almost certainly still need a glazing pass later to push the shadows and highlights again.

Black Legion continues to be useful over the gloss varnish to give a good black foundation to work from, so the next week will probably be spent using that to block in colours all over the models before moving onto enough details that I can glue the arms in place. Or I could work on the helmets. Or any of the other projects currently ongoing. Much to be done!

-- silly painter